Are you client-centric, and does it matter?

by Mac Mackay

There are, broadly speaking, three approaches to client service: one is putting the client at the heart of everything you do, the second is pretending to (but not really doing it), and the third is putting the client last and celebrating the fact.

Oddly, the third scenario is not packed with failed businesses; in fact it is a growth industry. The ‘budget’ sector – home to some of the world’s most successful airlines, supermarket chains and travel firms – offer customers the lowest possible level of service at the lowest possible price. Ryanair, whose CEO says passengers should stand and pay for the toilets, (and their customers get lumbered with hidden booking charges), still boasted sales of £1bn in the second quarter of 2012.

And businesses whose marketing messages are awash with customer-centric language – where they say the customer is number one – fail to put a smile on your face. When my credit card stopped working I visited my local bank to be told someone would call me that day to advise why. They didn’t. I called them mid-afternoon (as they close their business much earlier than I close mine) but the branch had no record of my visit. I accessed my account on-line: nothing. I called again: a call centre in Mumbai…

So, where will the ‘bucket’ legal service providers pitch themselves? Where are you pitching your firm?

Most firms say they ‘look after clients’ but it is a woolly term with many different meanings. Being client-centric was probably new in the 1980’s but not in 2013 yet sadly it is counter-culture to most businesses – which is why so few actually manage it. Call-centres, disempowered staff, standardisation through case management systems all go against what the client wants most: to be treated as an individual. Problems surface when you promise something you don’t deliver. The client feels let down at best and cheated at worst. The Partnership or Directors must decide whether the firm is really client-centric or not. If it is, then learning about clients and catering for them as individuals must be your goal.

Theory into Practice The starting point is to create a unifying firm-wide purpose that hones-in on the people you serve; create a clear, simple vision or sense of purpose. Then put considerable effort into making that come alive in everything you do.

Accounts Payable sending out ‘7-day’ letters to a client who has just paid the firm; case-worker leaving messages for the ‘Respondent’ on the matrimonial home phone when he left a month ago; charging a 97 year-old client one hour forty minutes at £195 an hour to drive to a nursing home for a LPA interview (across Norwich)?

These couldn’t happen? Well, I know for a fact they all did!

While their cultures differ, I suspect people from Cambodia get along OK with people from Cameroon – they are a long way apart geographically. Many countries don’t get along too well with their immediate neighbours but Cambodia and Cameroon are neighbours in the dictionary – and they are next to each other on the drop-down menu on the case management system. Get that wrong at the outset and your client-care letter (automatically created) will be wrong, too. Now try to get a recommendation for your firm from that client.

So, how much effort do you put into evaluating how well you are doing? In every case above the ‘end of matter’ questionnaire would not (and did not) pick-up any problem. Why? On no occasion was it completed – where one was offered. Clients just vote with their feet and you’d never realise.

If you are not measuring the degree of client-centric behaviour of the firm, it is hard to know why you are doing it or if anything is being achieved.

What Gets Measured Gets Done Two significant problems we notice among law firms is that first many develop marketing strategies but don’t align them to their HR or IT strategy in order to develop the required capabilities to deliver to that plan and secondly they make the mistake of allowing marketing initiatives to be driven by the requirements of small groups of individuals.

So, two fundamental questions: what is really important to your clients and how well do you perform against your competitors?

When it comes to importance we find that there are three levels among clients: those things that are not important to clients, those things they expect a law firm to do, and a third level of things that if you get this right they will give you their business. These last two are ‘order qualifiers’ and ‘order winners’. So, your webpage tells clients that you are successful, employ some very talented people who deliver your range of services, and you put the client at the heart of everything you do. Now, I’m sorry, but so does every other law firm’s webpage I’ve seen. Let’s face it, why would you tell clients (potential or existing) anything otherwise? These things are ‘order qualifiers’; fail on any of these and you are not in the market for their brief.

But what do you have to do to win the work – an ‘order winner’? In our experience researching ‘client-experience’ when dealing with organisations across many business sectors we find factors that are not obvious and often not complicated.

And then it comes to performance. Do you just do as well as competing firms – hopefully not worse – or do you perform better on things that clients consider order winning? Moreover, what would be the point of really excelling on things that clients consider not at all important in their decision-making process to brief your firm?

We call this our ‘importance / performance matrix’ which is discussed in full on our Connect2Law Management Course Stage 2. Figure One will give you more details and review a recent case study at: http://www.dawlaw.co.uk/grow-your-practice.html

We are not a solicitor's practice. We offer no legal advice.If you need legal assistance, please paste this into your browser: http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosingandusing/findasolicitor.lawBut if you represent a law firm......We share your passion for providing inspiring solutions to client problems, to improve things, to see the way forward......so, if you want to improve things for your firm, then we are waiting to hear from you.